Costco-- Tire pressure??

[Nick K]

I bought my Bfgoodrich All terrain about a year ago from Discount Tires. The size was 31-10-15's I was able to fit these on my stock 94 explorer sport. Discount put the tire pressure at 36 which seemed normal to me considering that the tire says MAX at 50 psi. They drive and feel fine. I just came back from Costco whole sale were I had my tires rotated, they said that you HAVE to follow the door sticker. I said these were different tires then the ones that came on it from the factory. They said it doesn't matter, the door says 26 PSI they said that explorers were only designed for tires that are inflated to 26 PSI. The tires now look under flatted what should I do? What do you keep your BFG's at?

Nick

 

[Pemerling]

i think costco is wrong...tire pressure varies with different size tire etc. if the tires u have on now are bigger than ur stock tires then dont follow the door pressure.
i run my firestones at 35 psi..im hoping to replace them as i dont like the idea of my tire blowing out on me

 

[jimbo74]

i am an ex-tire technician

go ahead and run 32-36 psi on them. they are larger than stock and ford only did that because with the stock flintstones (yes the recalled ones) they figured if they lowered the pressure the X would be less likely to roll over due to a softer sidewall at a lower pressure. also at america's tire company/ discount tire direct, where i used to work, all cars got 32 and all trucks got 35 as a standard inflation. there were some variables though like tow vehicles, etc

 

[Nick K]

So it fine

to inflate them back up to 35. This guy was telling me that any tire that the explorer rides on can't be more then 26psi

 

[SteveVB]

Do a search, youll get amore than a few opinions of pressures. Follow the door sticker - 27psi on my 91 was fine, good wear good traction, and even wear across the tread- 70k on firast set tires, 75k on second set. I would bump it up to 30-32 or 35 for long highway trips.

Do a chalk test to be sure, A stripe of chalk across the tread should wear evenly off the tire, if some on the outside remains lower the pressure until it just wears away.

The current issue of Fourwheeler(april) has a bunch of articles on tires and I think they have something about pressures

Good luck

 

[Robert]

Re: So it fine

Originally posted by Nick K
to inflate them back up to 35. This guy was telling me that any tire that the explorer rides on can't be more then 26psi

Don't take anything Costco tells you too seriously. My local Costco wouldn't mount any tires on my Explorer since according to the tire manager, the Explorer never came with 255 70R16 tires. It was right in his book. The closest match was a 255 70R15. I tried telling the guy that it was a typo in his book and he could come out and look at the information sticker inside my doorjamb that shows the tire size it came from when I bought it new. He tried telling me that my dealer must have swapped the original tires. I went down the road to Discount Tire and had them match the price I would have gotten at Costco.

Put in whatever you feel comfortable with. 35 PSI doesn't sound out of the norm. Like you said, the tires are not the same ones that your Explorer came with there for the original pressures won't necessarily be the same either. Also, was your Costco guy aware that Ford changed the recommended interval from 26 PSI to 30 or 32 on the Firestones? Finally, on my '97 4x4 Sport the recommended pressure on my 16" tires was 30 PSI so his blanket statement that all Explorer's are supposed to be at 26 PSI is wrong in itself.

 

[Nick K]

alright thanks for all the info, I feel a lot more comfortable knowing that the tire pressure is fine

 

[jimbo74]

Re: So it fine

Originally posted by Nick K
to inflate them back up to 35. This guy was telling me that any tire that the explorer rides on can't be more then 26psi

and about that...a letter ford sent me before the fstones got replaced said that i should have tires inflated to 30.... not the 26 like the door sticker says

 

[beavis195]

Costco wouldn't put LT rated tires on my Explorer because the stiffer sidewall would make it roll over in emergency handling. Then why did they put LT tires on 70,000 miles ago? He told me the Explorer was a handling nightmare. I should have said and was thinking, Sir, your an idiot, but I did say see ya later.

 

[jimbo74]

Originally posted by beavis195
Sir, your an idiot, see ya later.

Me?

 

[beavis195]

Originally posted by jimabena74


Me?

No, I meant the salesman. Sorry for the mix up.